Portret van een onbekende vrouw before 1903

Editor: Here we have a photograph titled "Portret van een onbekende vrouw" – "Portrait of an Unknown Woman" – taken before 1903, by Philipp von Schoeller. It's reproduced as a print in a book. The delicate rendering of light is quite striking to me. What do you see in this portrait? Curator: The focus, unequivocally, rests upon the interplay of light and shadow which models the sitter's face and clothing. Note how the diffuse lighting flattens the planes, almost reducing the form to a series of tonal variations. This careful manipulation of light creates a certain mood, would you agree? Editor: Yes, it gives the image an ethereal, almost dreamlike quality. Is the blurring typical of modernism at this time? Curator: Consider the textural contrast achieved. The smoothness of her face plays against the almost wiry quality of the hair, creating visual interest. Observe, also, how the relatively simple composition--the figure centered, filling the frame--serves to heighten our focus on the pure pictorial qualities of the photographic surface. Don’t you think this directs attention to the materials and techniques themselves? Editor: I do. By de-emphasizing narrative, it focuses more on form and texture, drawing you in to the tactile qualities of the work. It's a balance between the subject and its technical presentation. Curator: Precisely. Schoeller manipulates the medium itself to become the message, allowing the viewer to consider the essence of the photograph beyond its subject. Editor: I now better appreciate the image as a modernist still life and portrait, a study of form and photographic processes of the time.